Lockheed Martin to upgrade and maintain electro-optical surveillance systems for Navy submarines
WASHINGTON – Submarine combat systems experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will provide systems upgrades and technology insertion for a U.S. Navy electro-opticalsurveillance system designed for several classes of submarines.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington awarded an $119.7 million order Monday to the Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training segment in Manassas, Va., for technology insertion and refreshment for the AN/BVY-1 Integrated Submarine Imaging System (ISIS).
ISIS provides mission critical, all-weather, visual, and electronic search, digital image management, indication, warning, and platform architecture interface capabilities for Los Angeles-, Ohio-, and Virginia-class submarines, Navy officials say.
The order calls for Lockheed Martin to provide design, development, testing, reverse engineering, technology insertion and refreshment, engineering services, field engineering services, and system support for the ISIS system.
ISIS is a add-on system to integrate all imaging capabilities on existing Navy submarines. It is part of the Navy's submarine Photonics Imaging System, a non-hull-penetrating replacement for existing optical periscopes. The Photonics Imaging System uses a wide portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum with advanced electro-optical and thermal imaging, as well as communications intercept and electronic warfare (EW) support.
The ISIS program is replacing the optical light path of existing submarine periscopes with high-definition cameras and fiber optic digital imagery. It uses infrared cameras for image enhancements; provides active and passive range finding control; installs image enhancement capabilities and analysis tools for real time and recorded imagery; provides image recording, storage, and recall capabilities; and provides the ability to transmit imagery off the submarine to other naval and joint forces.
In-Depth Engineering Corp. in Fairfax, Va., under subcontract to Lockheed Martin, serves as the software development lead for AN/BVY-1 ISIS -- a system that revolutionizes Navy submarine surveillance capabilities by integrating digital video and still images from devices on a submarine's exterior and presenting real-time imagery and analysis on existing control room tactical displays.
ISIS provides digital image enhancement for data from a modern submarine's photonics mast. The photonics mast uses optical fiber to move imaging data from a raised mast aboard a submerged submarine through tiny openings in the submarine's hull to tactical displays around the interior of the vessel.
Related: Not your grandfather's submarine periscope
The photonics mast replaces or augments traditional periscopes aboard U.S. submarines. The photonics mast not only replaces the large opening in the submarine pressure hull necessary for the optics and hydraulics of a traditional periscope, but also can blend image data from several kinds of electro-optical sensors aboard the photonics mast, including visible-light and infrared cameras.
The ISIS system enables a submarine operator to manipulate a photonics mast with a joystick while looking at digital video on a computer monitor, and share that video real-time with the submarine's combat team on various displays located throughout the vessel.
On this order Tuesday, Lockheed Martin will do the work in Manassas, Virginia Beach, Arlington, and Fairfax, Va.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Northampton, Mass.; and Newport, R.I., and should be finished by September 2018.
For more information contact Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems online at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/rms.html, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
Learn more: search the Aerospace & Defense Buyer's Guide for companies, new products, press releases, and videos
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
